Class Details

Presentation Summary: With the plethora of diseases and medical conditions people face and environmental health issues encountered around the world, medical researchers and governmental regulators can’t tackle them on their own. This is where citizen science comes into play: where legions of people who often have no medical or scientific background contribute to and participate in research projects. This webinar will provide an overview of citizen science, as well as its variants such as volunteered geographic information, crowdsourcing and patient-led research. Health-focused librarians from a variety of settings will discover how they can support already-existing citizen science projects and gain tips on creating their own.

Presenter Bio: Eileen G. Harrington is the Health & Life Sciences Librarian at The Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, MD. Previously, she oversaw the Naturalist Center at the California Academy of Sciences, a natural history museum, aquarium and planetarium in San Francisco, CA. Her book, Exploring Environmental Science with Children and Teens (ALA Editions, 2014) includes a chapter on citizen science programs in libraries. Eileen has been a formal and informal educator both in the United States and in Latin America. She has a bachelor of arts in environmental studies and biology from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, a master’s degree in environmental studies from York University, Toronto, and a master‘s degree in library and information studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Class Overview

SEAside is an alternate webinar series from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region (NNLM SEA) to promote educational opportunities that occur infrequently and are in addition to the Beyond the SEA webinar series. Speakers cover different topics of interest to health science librarians, health care practitioners, librarians, and other health focused groups in the region. Topics include new and updated National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources, RML Awardee presentations on their research and outreach programs, Disaster Resources, Electronic Health Records, and many others related to health science and health care. All sessions are online webinars using WebEx, which allows for live phone conversation and online chat. SEAside webinars are held infrequently and are based on the availability of specific speakers who may not be able to present during the Beyond the SEA webinar series. Sessions are generally held at 2PM (ET) and last an hour. Sessions are recorded, closed captioned, and made available for later viewing.